BIOS Flash Guide

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06-20-2008, 04:41 AM
saaya

BIOS Flash Guide

In case you run into problems updating your BIOS here are some tips :)
There are several ways to update the BIOS, from a floppy, usb stick or from within windows.

You can download the latest BIOSes here (official) and here (beta)
You need to register and log in to be able to download from the quantum force site, registering takes only a minute and doesnt require email verification, so you can log in and download immediatly.

FLOPPY
you need to create a bootable floppy disk, id recommend you a windows 98SE boot disk.
You can get loads of different tools that format and then create a bootable floppy on www.bootdisk.com
Then place the flash tool and BIOS image onto the same or another floppy and boot the pc and then follow the flash tools instructions

USB
Backup all data from the UBS stick and then format it to FAT16 or FAT32.
Download this HP tool here to make your USB stick bootable. Put the BIOS and Award files on the USB stick and plug it in any of the USB Slots. Power on the System and select to boot from HDD (!) and then select the HDD Bootup list where your USB stick should show up now. Make sure its no1 in the list and then hit Exit and Save. The Board should now boot from the USB stick and show you the DOS command prompt. From here is the same as updating the BIOS from a floppy.

WINDOWS
updating the bios from within windows is the easiest way. Install the FOX Live Update utility from the CD that comes with the board, then update the utility if necessary and backup/flash the Main and Backup BIOS's with the file above.
Please Note: Main=BIOS1 and Backup=BIOS2 (thanks to ric9887 for pointing this out)

Please make sure you are at safe speeds when updating the BIOS, and please load the setup defaults and then save and exit the BIOS after updating it and then configure the settings.

BlackOps Notes:
The blackops has 2 BIOS chips, the default one that the board will boot from is the left one.
If you run into any problems you can change the jumpers to select to boot from the second chip.
The jumpers work like this, from left to right:
jumper position 1 slects BIOS chip 1 (left chip)
jumper position 2 slects BIOS chip 2 (right chip)
jumper position 3 slects BIOS chip 1 (left chip) by default but you can change in bios to select chip2
jumper position 4 slects BIOS chip 2 (right chip) by default but you can change in bios to select chip1

Dreadnought Notes:
The Dreadnought has 2 BIOS chips, the default one that the board will boot from is the top one.
If you run into any problems you can change the jumpers to select to boot from the second chip below the first one.
The jumpers work like this, from left to right:
jumper position 1 slects BIOS chip 1 (top chip)
jumper position 2 slects BIOS chip 2 (bottom chip)
jumper position 3 slects BIOS chip 1 (top chip) by default but you can change in bios to select chip2
jumper position 4 slects BIOS chip 2 (bottom chip) by default but you can change in bios to select chip1

If you have any questions or comments please let me know :toast:
06-20-2008, 06:26 PM
MotF Bane

I have a bootable USB key, but what is that gbdf folder for? Is that what you use to write the new BIOS, the "Ghost" application inside?
06-21-2008, 09:34 PM
saaya

hmmmm, sorry, i dont get what you mean :(
06-21-2008, 09:56 PM
MotF Bane

1 Attachment(s)

Attached - folders, descending. Does Ghost write the new BIOS?
06-21-2008, 11:11 PM
saaya

ahhhh, i see, no, its a part of the hp tool it seems...
i actually havent checked if its necessary to get the usb stick to boot, but id think so...
did you do a virus scan on it?

EDIT: I checked to be sure, the file is safe, i ran several virus scans on it and it passes symantec, antivir and trendmicro :D
06-30-2008, 07:48 PM
saaya

i updated the first post and added links to the BIOS download sections and more details about the winflash tool.
please let me know if you have any questions :)
07-11-2008, 01:28 AM
HDCHOPPER

eye havent had any problums whatsoever using the in windows live updater (knock on wood):D

but every time eye go to use it .. thiers an updated version window that pops up so ya eye go to get the updated version ..and every time it fails :shrug: no latest version for me :confused:

but does it matter any at all ?? the one eye have works great so far :up:

is thier any reason to have the latest version :shrug: is it important to have ?? am eye missing anything here ?

in my book if it aint broke then dont fix it :D
07-11-2008, 01:42 AM
saaya

heheh, generally yes :D
but if you want to tweak some more then the latest BIOS might help and give you some extra settings :)

latest bios for mars hmmm let me check...
and yes, theres some weird problem with some files when using the fox live update, on the blackops i wasnt able to download the new jmicron driver, it always started and then the download was aborted with an error message :/

i already contacted the china guys and will have all files hosted elsewhere until this is fixed.
as soon as its set up i will post the link to the laternative host location :)
08-21-2008, 06:24 PM
grungero

Is there a guide to flash a bios without a flash drive or a floppy disk? I'm talking about cd-rom flashing?
09-09-2008, 03:44 AM
saaya

there will be in a few days :D
hang in tight!
09-09-2008, 06:37 AM
Xello

I suggest using the Fox Live Update program, it's really quick and really painless, have used it a good 5 or 6 times now :)
09-09-2008, 06:48 AM
saaya

yeah, that or a usb stick with a .bat file really works well too.
but i always preferred flashing from windows too...
09-09-2008, 03:30 PM
grungero

What happens if flashing fails in my mars?
09-09-2008, 04:56 PM
saaya

Quote:

Originally Posted by grungero

What happens if flashing fails in my mars?

if its still running, try to flash it again, and dont power it off until you managed to complete it :D
if its not running, reset cmos and try to boot, then reflash it.
if that doesnt work, contact your local shop and ask them if you can lend a bios chip from a mars board to reflash your own chip, or ask them if they can do it. or let me know and ill send you a new bios chip with a working mars bios on it :)
09-10-2008, 02:51 AM
grungero

Quote:

Originally Posted by saaya

if its still running, try to flash it again, and dont power it off until you managed to complete it :D
if its not running, reset cmos and try to boot, then reflash it.
if that doesnt work, contact your local shop and ask them if you can lend a bios chip from a mars board to reflash your own chip, or ask them if they can do it. or let me know and ill send you a new bios chip with a working mars bios on it :)

You can provide that for me? Cool!
09-14-2008, 05:23 AM
saaya

sure :)
so you need one?
09-14-2008, 02:53 PM
grungero

Quote:

Originally Posted by saaya

sure :)
so you need one?

No saaya, but in case i'll have some serious trouble, that's the time. :)
09-17-2008, 10:36 PM
saaya

sure thing, just let me know :up:
09-18-2008, 03:24 AM
grungero

I've updated my bios to P14 through windows. Glad it's a success! :D
09-22-2008, 05:22 AM
saaya

good to hear :)
windows flashing always went fine for me, even at highly oced speeds, but i def recommend clocking the rig down to stable speeds to flash the bios :D
09-22-2008, 02:31 PM
grungero

Quote:

Originally Posted by saaya

good to hear :)
windows flashing always went fine for me, even at highly oced speeds, but i def recommend clocking the rig down to stable speeds to flash the bios :D

I disabled OC for that moment. Just for safety. :D
01-16-2009, 06:16 AM
matttehman

I have tried the windows flashing method above several times with no luck. No I did not mess up my board or anything I was able to clear CMOS and start over again. But I do not understand why it says "flash was successful, would you like to restart your pc now?" and then when I restart I cannot get a post screen.

When I get home later I am going to try to flash the p13 instead( On p12 right now).
02-06-2009, 12:20 AM
saaya

Quote:

Originally Posted by matttehman

I have tried the windows flashing method above several times with no luck. No I did not mess up my board or anything I was able to clear CMOS and start over again. But I do not understand why it says "flash was successful, would you like to restart your pc now?" and then when I restart I cannot get a post screen.

When I get home later I am going to try to flash the p13 instead( On p12 right now).

did you select the "clear cmos" and "load setup defaults" option?
did you use the award winflash tool or the foxconn tool?
its normal that you have to clear cmos after a bios update if you dont select the "clear cmos" or "load setup defaults" switch when flashing the bios :)
03-10-2009, 10:54 AM
rwoodburn1

Can anyone tell me how to make a bootable cd for vist 64
03-15-2009, 01:17 AM
InfinityNX

What's the best bios for the blackops to use for overclocking? My PC specs are in my sig :)
03-15-2009, 11:54 AM
ragingclue

Quote:

Originally Posted by InfinityNX

What's the best bios for the blackops to use for overclocking? My PC specs are in my sig :)

I've decided on G28 after trying G30, G32, P04, and P05. If you try wading through the hundreds of OC/BIOS posts dealing with the BlackOps, you can make the determination for yourself. After all that I read, and trying them all myself, I prefer G28.

I'm sure P06 might be good as well; however, I probably won't still have my BlackOps in 2015....
08-10-2009, 03:13 PM
ptrout

Is there a recovery method, if something does wrong. Can i boot into BIOS2 and then try to re-flash BIOS1 ?
11-17-2009, 02:21 PM
Mescalamba

Probably yes.. Never tried that. But should be possible.
06-01-2010, 05:04 AM
Mellowyellow

I am trying to make a USB stick bootable, i formatted to FAT32 but the HP tool is no longer available and I can not find it anywhere. any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
06-01-2010, 08:02 AM
Mescalamba

http://rapidshare.com/files/394077731/HPUSBFW.EXE.html

This will work for some time..
06-01-2010, 01:20 PM
Mellowyellow

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mescalamba

http://rapidshare.com/files/394077731/HPUSBFW.EXE.html

This will work for some time..

Thanks for the fast response, but formatting to FAT32 isn't the same as making it bootable right???
When clicking the box Create a Dos Startup disk, where do I find the files located at?

Thanks
06-01-2010, 01:34 PM
Mescalamba

You should be able to use internal MS-DOS files.. or not? I can look for them, it will just take some time..
06-01-2010, 03:15 PM
Mellowyellow

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mescalamba

You should be able to use internal MS-DOS files.. or not? I can look for them, it will just take some time..

the second box wasn't highlighted, the MS-DOS option.

I gave it a go from Fox live update, seemed to install with out issue but now it hangs on A1 checking into that issue now, but would still like to be able to boot from the USB stick, I just feel safer that way.

Thanks for all your help btw.
Jb
07-29-2010, 12:36 AM
XmikeX

Quote:

Originally Posted by ptrout

Is there a recovery method, if something does wrong. Can i boot into BIOS2 and then try to re-flash BIOS1 ?

With older technology, hot-flashing is/was an option if you had two motherboards with the same rom chip.
With dual-bios boards, hot-flashing might still be an option if your software (for some reason) isn't programming the chip you want.

IIRC, Hot-flash routine is typically :
1) Insert known good rom __lightly__ into active bios socket.
2) Boot into dos/whatever.
3) Remove good rom while system remains powered-up.
4) Insert bad rom into same socket.
5) Flash the bad rom.

Step 3) may be easier if you dump some non-conductive dental floss in and out of the socket. You can use this floss to gently lift the good rom out without your fingers or tools going near the energized motherboard. This may require some practice.

Cheers,
XmX